{"id":26100,"date":"2021-07-17T02:24:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-17T02:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=26100"},"modified":"2021-07-18T14:14:44","modified_gmt":"2021-07-18T14:14:44","slug":"what-is-child-care-insecurity-2-social-scientists-explain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/what-is-child-care-insecurity-2-social-scientists-explain\/","title":{"rendered":"What is child care insecurity? 2 social scientists explain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Cassandra M. Johnson<\/a>, Texas State University<\/a><\/em> and Shailen Singh<\/a>, Texas State University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Child care insecurity is a term we\u2019ve come up with to describe limited or uncertain access<\/a> to adequate child care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It factors into many Americans\u2019 decisions<\/a> whether to even have a child. Parents \u2013 mothers especially \u2013 often weigh the cost of child care in their decision to return to work. And when a kid has a disability, there may not even be child care options that meet the family\u2019s needs<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As researchers who study how policies and systems<\/a> affect well-being and health<\/a>, we argue that child care insecurity is a public health issue similar to food insecurity<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And just as with food insecurity, increasing access is necessary. However, access alone will not address the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why child care insecurity matters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Female caregivers in the U.S. have traditionally borne most of the burden of finding and managing child care and providing care directly. This results in stalled careers<\/a>, higher stress<\/a> and lower earnings<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When schools and child care facilities were forced to close or restrict access during the COVID-19 pandemic, millions more American<\/a> parents and guardians \u2013 men and women alike \u2013 found themselves suddenly facing child care insecurity. This affected their well-being and mental health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A group of health psychologists surveyed parents<\/a> throughout the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. About 4% of the parents reported having high stress levels \u201cbefore COVID-19.\u201d But by May 2020, that share had ballooned to 22%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, sociologists who surveyed and interviewed<\/a> U.S. mothers in April and May of 2020 found that not having child care affected mothers\u2019 interpersonal interactions \u2013 such as increased frustration with their children \u2013 and quality of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How common is it?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In January 2020, 26 million working caregivers in the U.S. \u201cdid not have an in-home care option\u201d \u2013 whether a parent, grandparent or older sibling \u2013 for children 14 years and younger, according to a Rand Corp. analysis of data<\/a> from the U.S. Department of Labor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A World Bank Report<\/a> from December 2020 estimated that globally, over 40% of all children who needed quality child care or preschool in 2018 did not have access to it. That\u2019s nearly 350 million kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.<\/em> Sign up for our weekly newsletter<\/a>.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Joe Biden has proposed<\/a> some national policies to address child care insecurity in the U.S. \u2013 for example, limiting the percentage of income families need to spend on child care to 7%<\/a> by providing subsidies to care providers. This would likely improve access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, child care insecurity is not always based on economic constraints. The quality of child care, location, hours and access for children with disabilities can all play a role as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Conversation U.S. publishes short, accessible explanations of newsworthy subjects by academics in their areas of expertise.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cassandra M. Johnson<\/a>, Assistant Professor of Nutrition and Foods, Texas State University<\/a><\/em> and Shailen Singh<\/a>, Assistant Professor, Department of Organization, Workforce, & Leadership Studies, Texas State University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cassandra M. Johnson, Texas State University and Shailen Singh, Texas State University Child care insecurity is a term we\u2019ve come up with to describe limited or uncertain access to adequate child care. It factors into many Americans\u2019 decisions whether to even have a child. Parents \u2013 mothers especially \u2013 often weigh the cost of child […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":26101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[292],"tags":[10006,3560,132,3006,4128,8439,1034,997,2197,10135,4424],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26100"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26100"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26102,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26100\/revisions\/26102"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}